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Clan Dragonborn's Reviews > Across the Sand
Across the Sand (The Sand Chronicles, #2)
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Seems a bit...lazy.
I was the biggest fan of Wool and the Silo series when I read them years ago. I also enjoyed the other books that followed Howey's success, so I'm familiar with his work.
The one thing I didn't like was that they tended to be released in small bites - "novelettes" that would be sold separately and often just ended abruptly. I found this annoying, as it was hard to build up momentum in the reading and keep connections with the characters fresh, and also because it meant that a normal length book cost $35 for all the "chapters" rather than the $10-14 a single book would cost.
I said as much at one point in a review, and Howey himself was gracious enough to enter into a dialogue about it. We went back and forth for a bit, and he shared how he really enjoyed the "crowd sourcing" of the development of the book, receiving feedback and suggestions from readers as he published these chapters over the course of time.
While I appreciated why he would like this approach, I said that for me, who was NOT a part of his blog or website and who didn't have input, his method just meant that reading one of his books was slow and expensive, and didn't add to my enjoyment.
Howey's first book in the Sand Chronicles was written in this serialized, crowd sourced way, while this second book was written and released fully, in the more traditional publishing methods.
I now have to say, I think I'm beginning to see whay Howey liked the crowd collaboration.
"Across the Sand" feels underdeveloped, somewhat lazy and predictable in plot, and I struggled to connect with the characters as I have in previous books or series. Most of my emotional investment was holdover from the first book, and this began to feel like phoned in narrative just to move the plot along. Its a standard "book two" trap - it can feel like filler to get to the final big ending - but this and the distracted writing simply made the book feel flat for me.
Maybe now that Howey has left the country and is sailing around the world on his yacht, he's unable to easily do the crowd sourcing and interaction he's done in previous books as he writes. At this point, I may have to revise my earlier critique of that method, at least when it comes to Howey. It may be that he actually needs the creative, helpful guidance of the "crowd" to turn out a great book.
I was the biggest fan of Wool and the Silo series when I read them years ago. I also enjoyed the other books that followed Howey's success, so I'm familiar with his work.
The one thing I didn't like was that they tended to be released in small bites - "novelettes" that would be sold separately and often just ended abruptly. I found this annoying, as it was hard to build up momentum in the reading and keep connections with the characters fresh, and also because it meant that a normal length book cost $35 for all the "chapters" rather than the $10-14 a single book would cost.
I said as much at one point in a review, and Howey himself was gracious enough to enter into a dialogue about it. We went back and forth for a bit, and he shared how he really enjoyed the "crowd sourcing" of the development of the book, receiving feedback and suggestions from readers as he published these chapters over the course of time.
While I appreciated why he would like this approach, I said that for me, who was NOT a part of his blog or website and who didn't have input, his method just meant that reading one of his books was slow and expensive, and didn't add to my enjoyment.
Howey's first book in the Sand Chronicles was written in this serialized, crowd sourced way, while this second book was written and released fully, in the more traditional publishing methods.
I now have to say, I think I'm beginning to see whay Howey liked the crowd collaboration.
"Across the Sand" feels underdeveloped, somewhat lazy and predictable in plot, and I struggled to connect with the characters as I have in previous books or series. Most of my emotional investment was holdover from the first book, and this began to feel like phoned in narrative just to move the plot along. Its a standard "book two" trap - it can feel like filler to get to the final big ending - but this and the distracted writing simply made the book feel flat for me.
Maybe now that Howey has left the country and is sailing around the world on his yacht, he's unable to easily do the crowd sourcing and interaction he's done in previous books as he writes. At this point, I may have to revise my earlier critique of that method, at least when it comes to Howey. It may be that he actually needs the creative, helpful guidance of the "crowd" to turn out a great book.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
December 20, 2022
– Shelved
December 20, 2022
–
Finished Reading
